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A pastor out of Chicago was hit with pepper spray from ICE officials. Now, that same pastor is saying that white male Christians are not safe under the Trump administration. It's time for a little bit of discernment, folks.
Gramster Rant: False Pastors Being Goofball Stupidity
The Bible warns us over and over about false prophets, false teachers, false Christs that are going to arise. So the question is, are you seeing it?
Here's the latest that got stuck in my craw. Reverend David Black of First Presbyterian Church out of Chicago is warning you—if you are a white male Christian, even you are not safe under the Trump administration. I didn't realize those were the only ones coming for me, supposedly. I don't know what he's talking about.
Recently, he's at an ICE facility protesting and he got hit with pepper spray. The video of it is captured, and what you see looks very upsetting as all of this stuff is. It should be upsetting to us. But Black's message goes on to say that these attacks by ICE are indiscriminate and vicious. And he tells his tale about it.
Black says he was just inviting these ICE officers to repentance and offered them an altar call. He says, "I invited them to come and receive salvation and be part of the kingdom that is coming." Here's a picture of him right here preaching up to these ICE officers. I mean, I'm sorry. Doesn't that look religious? That looks like grandstanding to me. And whenever you see people grandstanding in the name of the Lord, there's something amiss in their walk with Christ or maybe they don't even have a walk with Christ, right?
Don't forget that every single book in the New Testament, with the exception of one, warns of false teachers, of false people trying to do false doctrine. And we are awash with it here in America. It's always been a concern, even with the early church. But He does tell us that in the last days, there's just going to be an explosion of it. So we have to be even extra discerning right now.
Context Is King
Here's the deal. It's just a 20-second clip that they spliced out of the entire video and put up on social media or wherever to get the story started. And as you know, context is king. So the question becomes: 20 seconds doesn't tell you the whole story. What happened all around and outside of that, right?
Well, the Department of Homeland Security did indeed address what was going on and they said that these protesters had gathered on federal property. They were in front of a gate where obviously vehicles come in and out. You can't tell by the pictures nor the video whether that gate was opened or closed. You just don't know. But they're there. And the Department of Homeland Security said that several times they were told to move. Then after they didn't comply with that, they did warn them that force would be used and they still did not comply. And then shortly before the pepper spray was shot, rocks and bottles and firecrackers started getting launched towards these ICE officers.
And that's a really dicey thing when you are assigned to protect and transfer violent criminals and keep yourself safe. Even the criminals have to be kept safe. And then the population at large, they have to be kept safe. And somebody's going to start throwing firecrackers in the middle of this stuff? That's just obscene.
Here's the shot after the pepper spray was launched down on them. You can see with the arrow there that somebody jumped in front of the fake pastor. Again, he's wearing black. He's wearing black and a collar. And I mean, you know, again, I have gone on record many times as telling people when you go to share the gospel of Jesus Christ—we need to be about witnessing, that's part of our role—you need to know that you have the right to do it. Like for example, don't sit down on an airplane and turn to a complete stranger and say, "Do you know where you're going to go when you die?" I mean that's not a healthy way to witness your love of Christ that you have in your heart because of the changed life because He was your substitute. Nor is standing on the sidewalk basically being a blowhard.
I mean he did this for attention. And you can see in picture number one, I mean, this is somebody who is really trying to—he's drawing attention to himself specifically, trying to do something for himself. And then he gets blasted and now he says that no one is safe under the Trump administration.
And the thing is he described the attacks as indiscriminate and then turned around and tries to say that he was targeted. And we can tell by the second picture, moments before any of the pepper spray was shot, somebody moved actually right in front of him. So when that went off, it was in his direction, but they clearly weren't targeting him specifically. They were shooting it into the crowd to get the crowd to disperse.
So he's kind of bummed that he wasn't targeted specifically, even though I guess out of both sides of his mouth, saying that it's indiscriminate and then saying that he's being targeted. It just doesn't make any sense.
Forgiveness with a Lawsuit?
Black also did an interview with Newsweek where he said that he quote "forgave the ICE officers who peppered him." As a pastor, he forgave them, but as an American citizen, he needs them to be held accountable.
So here again, both sides of our mouth here. I forgive you, but I'm taking you to court. You know what I mean? It's like, what? Wait, do you know what those words mean?
Well, there are times when you can take people to court and still have forgiveness in your heart. There's a time you can still seek justice and still have forgiveness in your heart. But what he's doing is he thinks that we're all so stupid we can't see through it. He's playing games and nothing makes me more sad in an angry kind of sadness—is that a real thing? I don't know. Am I angry or am I sad?—is when people use pastoral ministry to try to be conniving in whatever way, shape, or form. That just drives me crazy because there will be some people who will believe in this. There'll be some people that will be like, "Oh, those bad ICE agents, they don't love Jesus," right? You know, or whatever the case might be.
October 6 is when it was official. He is part of a larger group who did officially file suit against the agents. And what I want to do is I just want to kind of contrast that with Erica Kirk when her husband was shot and killed. They asked her, "Do you want to see the person who killed your husband get the death penalty?" And I got to be honest, as a human being, it would be very easy to say, "Yeah, I'd like to see that." But Erica Kirk didn't. She actually said, "That's not up to me. That's up to the courts. That's up to the laws to impose the penalty for that."
So there's a stark contrast between those two reactions of alleged wrongdoing. Can you see it?
Well, and when you really break it down, a lot of times it's not so much everybody's got to forgive everybody who wrongs them, no one can ever seek justice and it's always the loving thing to just seek justice and then find forgiveness. Look, each situation is a little bit different. So you've got to have discernment. And so you always want to err on the side of biblical accuracy. You want to be on the side of biblical accuracy. And then the amount of forgiveness that you've received, you want to try to have that for others.
But if somebody harms one of my children or grandchildren, I'm going to want the justice department to really throw their full weight behind them. And through the love of Christ, I will do all I can to find forgiveness for them. But that doesn't mean I won't seek justice, right? You know what I mean?
There's been a couple other situations we've been in as both people and me as a professional where the advice I got was to sue someone. And it's like, yes, I probably could have sued them, probably could have won, but there's a couple that maybe looking back, maybe that might have been the right thing, but we always chose not to. And then there's one recently in my life, it's like there's no way I would ever sue this man. He's one of the most special people in my whole life. We're just going through a little bit of a hiccup, you know, of a mumbo jumbo. And somebody's going to come out on the losing end of it. But how do you deal with it going forward?
And so when you seek the justice, all right, you got to understand God is going to be a God of justice. He is a God of order and a God of justice, but you want to have forgiveness in your heart. And so here's what you want. You want it to be authentic. You want your actions and your attitude to line up with what Scripture actually says and what Jesus is actually talking to you in your heart of hearts about.
So these examples—you're not as good as Erica because you want the death penalty or you don't love people because you want the death penalty—you can really get off track in a way where it's just not healthy. So there is no cookie-cutter answer other than err on the side of love, err on the side of forgiveness when possible, but you know, love mercy, seek justice. Love mercy, seek justice.
The Real Hypocrisy
But I think there's a big hypocrisy here. And I'll tell you what that is. And I hope I can get the words out right. Here's the hypocrisy. The hypocrisy is the laws are already on the books. The men in the ICE uniforms are enforcing the law. Okay?
But the hypocrisy is then here's this so-called pastor—and I'm making the quotations with my fingers—he's not seeking justice for someone else. He's seeking justice for himself. Okay?
When people were talking about like the Charlie Kirk assassination, they're like, "Boy, I'd like to see the death penalty on that one." That wasn't justice for themselves. Nothing happened to them. They were looking at Erica and her children and Charlie's parents and they're hoping for justice for them.
So there's a little bit of hypocrisy going on there. And like you said, there's some discernment that needs to go on. And the question is, who are you seeking justice for? And this pastor is all about himself.
This Is Grandstanding, Not Gospel
So I want to move into—he's kind of a bad pastor. He's a bad pastor and he's wearing a collar. So that's why you thought he might have been a priest. But if you're going to present the gospel and call someone to repentance, would you want to show up at their workplace while they're on a roof and call them to repentance? What are they supposed to do? Just stop and kneel right there while they're protecting a building?
Exactly. This was a grandstand from start to finish. He got thumped and now he wants justice like a little crying wussy school boy. This is not Christianity. This is not the love of Christ. This is not the largess of Jesus entering a person and saying, "No, I'm going to forgive those who have harmed me." This is not what's going on.
And so, you know, the fact that he now wants justice for getting pepper-sprayed is because he was grandstanding in the first place. And what it actually says in the lawsuit that is filed is he wants exemption for clergy and journalists to be there and not be impeded. Again, he's seeking justice. He's seeking something to benefit himself, not other people.
And so as you're listening to him tell all these stories and everything, it's all about how he's been wronged and what happened to him and how he wants justice for himself. And it really has nothing to do with the reason he says that he was there. And you're absolutely right. If you're really truly wanting to share the gospel with someone, that would be the polar opposite least effective way to do it. To show up at their workplace and expect that they're going to stop doing their job.
And sometimes when people are saying they're doing something in the name of the Lord, they're not. Exactly. They're not. Exactly.
So, you know, I really like Chris Rosebrough, Fighting for the Faith. If you want to find a YouTube channel that's going to have a really cool, good Bible scholar that teaches the Bible, it would be him. And he starts his show by saying, "Let's compare what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God." And when you do that with this guy right here, he's not doing effective evangelism. He's grandstanding.
And I'm sorry, my big sin in this is my ability to not laugh at him when he gets pepper-sprayed. Because they, you know, it's almost like, dude, you got what you were asking for. And I mean, if you have watched the news for five minutes, and I don't care what news outlet it is, you know, the people showing up to these ICE facilities, they're getting pepper-sprayed, they're getting knocked to the ground, they're getting shoved out of the way, they're getting arrested sometimes. Like, this is a shock to you? I mean, it's just all a straw man's argument.
Signs You Might Have a Bad Pastor
Sign Number One: The Manner of Invitation to Repentance
So number one, to recap: If this is the manner in which your pastor is going to want to quote-unquote invite people to repentance, you have a bad pastor.
Sign Number Two: Not Meeting Physical Needs First
Number two, we've often heard how it can be very helpful when you're sharing the gospel to try if you can to meet some physical need for people and they may be more open and willing to hear what you have to say. We see that a lot with soup kitchens, with rehab facilities, with crisis centers and so on where people get to a point in their life where it's just like stop. I need to hear about a different way and you find these people who are down on their luck in dire circumstances and you realize they really need the gospel. They really need the Lord to show up in their life.
This pastor doesn't even know who those people are. He doesn't know if those ICE people go to a church, if they know the Lord. What are you doing?
Meeting those needs and meeting those needs gives you an opening for spiritual conversations. You now have a credibility they would ask. I am against the whole St. Francis "always share the gospel and when necessary use words," right? If you're not using words, you're not sharing the gospel. When you're loving somebody by feeding them, when you're loving somebody by helping them change their tire or whatever, and you're just being a solid human being who's been redeemed, and now you're trying to live out your faith, right, those physical need things will open up spiritual conversations.
And if your heart is tender to the Lord and you're like, "Lord, please help me open up this conversation," and the person says, "Thanks, dude. I ain't got time to talk," and walks away. Guess what? The Lord didn't open it up. And you're not, "Oh, I should have held him down and told him he's lost and without Jesus." And it's like, no.
And so I hate contrived gospel sharing, and this one isn't even that. This one's beyond that. This is grandstanding, you know, blowhardy. Look at me. These ICE agents are already in a very high stress, dangerous situation just by showing up to work. You know what I mean?
So how exactly do you think that these ICE agents who are in charge of containing or transporting some of the most dangerous people on the globe and you show up and you start hampering their work? Do you really think that that's what's going to open you to sharing the gospel? Hey, you just got me fired. What did you want to say to me? Oh, you want to tell me about eternal life? Yeah, I'm going to sue you, too.
Sign Number Three: Mr. Black Is Lying to You
Here's the deal. Mr. Black is lying to you.
Sign Number Four: He's Going to Sue You
And lastly, the fourth way you might know you have a bad pastor is they turn around and they're going to sue you. I mean, what? You're going to sue them. The same people that you were saying that you were inviting to repentance. It doesn't make any sense.
Let's look at people who really are sharing the gospel with people and working really hard because honestly, how do you reconcile that in your brain? I'm going to file a lawsuit against these people that I was just trying to share the gospel with?
Well, I mean, you know, again, I don't know what the recourse would be, but here you obviously have a guy who showed up, put himself in a position where he could have his arms out, wearing a collar, acting like he's spiritual. Costume. He was a costume pretender. And the costume pretenders, maybe we just as Christians call them out. Maybe like what we're doing on this show.
I can just imagine some of the emails we would get. People would be saying, "You're just a mean Christian. Oh, that Christian, he's a bigot." No, this dude's a loser. This dude is just being off the beaten path. And Christians need to stand up and start calling him that, saying, "Hey, this is a false teacher at best and he's an absolute con man at worst."
He's got different motives here. He's got a different alternative than sharing the gospel and inviting people to repentance. That's for sure.
The Contrast with Real Ministry
Contrast the way this pastor behaved with the way people who are really doing ministry, how they function and work. And so think about people who work in like a crisis center or a rehab facility or something or a food pantry or whatever. Are they showing up at these people's jobs to see if they'll receive Christ? Absolutely not. No, they're not.
They set up a system where they can find these people and reach out to these people and help these people. Are they trying to have women who are being trafficked arrested or dragged into court? Absolutely not. They are not. Are they walking into red light districts and just calling out prostitutes to repent? No. No, they're not. That's not how it works.
What are they doing? They're setting up a way that they can work with law enforcement, work with legislators, work with churches, and with prisons to say, "Hey, you've got people who are at risk. If anyone is interested in what we can do for them, we would be glad to help them." That's how it works. That is the antithesis of what the so-called pastor is pretending to do. That's not his motive at all. It is the polar opposite. And when you compare them and contrast them, you can see that plain as day.
And a lot of times it's the attitude of your heart and being available is half the battle. As a Christian ministry, as a pastor, other ministries like what you talked about, outreach things, just being available and caring is half the battle. And if there's an offer to help, it's out of love.
You know, I have a lot—I guess I do a lot more counseling than what I've been than what I thought I would do, I guess. And to me, the benefit for me is to see God work. And the benefit for them is they got somebody who won't judge them, who will listen, who will try to relate, and who will share Scriptures. Share God's love with them.
Because it's, you know, I think I said it on the last show. If I didn't, I meant to. That therapy was created 120 years ago. And since then we have grown into the most anxiety-filled, worry-filled society in all of history because therapists have started to take the place of actual biblical discipleship that used to happen throughout the church, right?
And so that's why when you're in these ministries and you have good what I call good ground, you know, when the farmer scatters the seeds, right? Some falls on rocky, thorny, good ground, solid soil. It's the intent of the heart to want to help people. Look, it's fallen people helping fallen people. So nothing's perfect, right? But that's the attitude that you would see that is not seen in this bad pastor.
And it would just be great if we had like, I don't know, maybe signs you would be able to spot a bad pastor. We do have some.
More Signs of a Bad Pastor
Sign One: He's Been Really Busy
Some signs that there's something really bad going on with the pastor. Number one, he's been really busy. This Reverend Black has been very busy doing interviews, appearing on CNN. He was interviewed with Newsweek. And this is not the first time ICE has seen them because several members of the ICE officials have said, "Yeah, we see him here. They've seen him before. They know who he is," whatever.
So my question is when do you pastor? When do you shepherd your flock? Because instead of writing sermons and visiting people in the nursing homes or praying for people or showing up to your church events and the things that they're doing, you're on CNN and Newsweek and at protests. That's not a pastor if that's what your pastor's busy doing with a big portion of his time. I think you have a bad pastor.
Sign Two: Using His Collar for Preferential Treatment
Number two, using his collar. He was clearly using his collar in order to receive preferential treatment. I don't get the benefit of the collar ever. I used the hoodie. I used the baseball jersey, my old Minnesota Twins military jersey. You know, I mean, I don't—the collar, you know, we had our buddy Matt Richard who wears the collar, and he's one of the few guys on the planet that wears a collar that I have a huge respect for and he says that it generates conversations, but he also says that it generates a lot of ill will from people, right? People call him father even though he's a Lutheran pastor. And sometimes he just lets it go. And sometimes it's an opportunity for him to open up and start having a spiritual conversation with someone.
If you want to compare and contrast a bad pastor with a good pastor, compare everybody to Matt Richard because he's the good pastor standard in my opinion. Pastor Matt Richard, you can find him. I hope he doesn't ever let me down though. I said that. I don't think his wife will let him. He was our kid's youth pastor before he moved on and started wearing the collar and doing all this stuff, and we've known him since he was in seminary. And that's a good pastor right there.
And so that's where it gets to he's seeking preferential treatment. So he walks into court. What is he looking for? He's looking for pastors, clergy, and journalists to get a pass on interrupting the work that ICE agents are trying to do. Again, doesn't get back to the people he says he's standing up for. He hasn't even mentioned those people. It's all about him and "they were laughing at me. They shot the pepper spray and they were laughing at me."
Well, you know, kind of the way you behaved, they could arrest you and throw you in the clink. They could have done that. Hey, my Christianity made me really try hard not to laugh. But I couldn't get there. I'm sorry, dude. You brought it on yourself. You have to have some joy on the job, you know.
So anyway, the point is it's very self-seeking and he's really looking out for himself. It's very obvious.
Sign Three: Showing Up at Someone's Workplace
Number three, you have a bad pastor if you have a pastor that thinks that they have a right to show up at someone's workplace. That is so not cool. That just me personally rubs me way wrong. I just feel like if a pastor ever decided to show up to my workplace to deal with any sort of conflict, I would be like, "You, buddy, are way out of bounds. Way out of bounds."
And so it's just—your pastor is your husband. Your boss is your husband. Now go do the dishes. And you are the boss of your husband in three different roles. You're my boss. I'm your boss and I'm your pastor. Depending on what we're doing in life. We help one another. That's what we do. I am not your boss. That's for sure. You are in a couple different instances. Well, on this show, yeah. This is your show. I'm your employee. Volunteer. You decide.
But here I am. And then other times I've been the general manager. You've been a program director of radio stations. I'm your boss. No. You know, and I got to be honest, it was really hard when you would screw up because—anyway, who—thank goodness it was rare.
So if a pastor wants to talk to somebody about something, you can give them a call and say, "Hey, would you like to get together?" You can do any of that stuff. Knock on their door at their workplace. "Hey, I'd like to call you to repentance." "Oh, let me put my gun down while they move these gang bangers and I'll do what you want." Like, it is such a joke. It's not even—it's so glaringly obvious.
Knock knock knock. "Hey, everybody come in here. Bring the boss. Bring the CEO. I'm calling these people to repentance. I am calling them to repentance."
Liberal Hijacking of Christianity
So this is lastly, this is nothing more than a liberal hijacking of Christianity once again. And it doesn't necessarily have to be liberal. A lot of people do this. They hijack Christianity for their own agenda. And that's what the Bible's talking about when it says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. He doesn't pop out and say, "I'm the devil and I want you to do wrong." No, he pretends he's doing good and he disguises himself as an angel of light. And in that world there are tons of deceptions.
In fact, my motivation for wanting to continue to do this hobby show is that we know that it reaches a lot more people than what we think it does, right? And again, you know, why don't you grow it and have sponsors? Because we're just doing it out of good old-fashioned obedience to the Lord to try to share with some people and break through with some things because I don't know, maybe there's a way that you and I communicate that connects with people. It has for 25 years. Maybe God will use it.
When He says He's masquerading as an angel of light, when our King tells us, "Watch out for this deceiver," He's being loving. He's telling us to really watch out. We are told over and over and over again in Scripture to watch out for the deception. And yet we just go along like we've got it and everybody else doesn't have it. Right?
Then the Bible says, "Examine yourself to see if you are in fact in the faith." Does that mean you're supposed to constantly ask if you're saved or not? No. Once you've been soundly saved and you've got that new life in Christ, the examination comes from, do you see the deception swirling around you?
And here's the thing. Here's the one point that I want to make then and then we can get into, you know, the antichrist next phase of the show. And that is people need to understand that the angel of light that is being talked about in the Scripture is deception that every single one of us faces. "Well, I'm sure glad that I'm prayed up and that when deception comes to my door, I'll recognize it. But all these other people, they're facing a swirl of deception." No, we're all dancing around deception with every click of the mouse.
There is—I think for every sound Bible teacher out there like John MacArthur or Justin Peters or Chris Rosebrough, there's a dozen people out there—not even a dozen, I'd say there's a hundred people out there. For every good one, there's a hundred bad ones that want to slightly lead you astray. They want to give you a little bit of truth and then a little bit of falsehood or they're just flat-out heretics, you know, and they are deceiving. Some of them sound so good. Some of it makes it, "Oh, this could be really good for me or my brand or my life or my inner being." And that's—no, there's so much of it that's garbage.
Let the Bible be sufficient. Sola Scriptura. And recognize that there is deception always around you. Satan is prowling around always trying to trip you up. That's why you—contentment with godliness is great gain. That's why His grace is sufficient. That's why the cross of Christ and the resurrection is enough. You don't have to add any of the other mumbo jumbo to it. You know, don't go into the ditch on either side. Stay on that narrow path which is a biblical walk with Christ.
And this guy, this—I don't even want to call him pastor Black—fake pastor Black. These are the people that the Scripture I think says mark and avoid. Absolutely.
Understanding Antichrist
I want to take us into just some simple definitions because we talk about antichrist a lot. And when we're talking about false teachers and false prophets, they all kind of fall under that category in that they are against the authentic Christ. But what a lot of people don't realize is the full definition of "anti" in that word antichrist.
I went to Webster's dictionary and I pulled it up. There's actually two definitions. There's even more. It gets into more precise things, but these two I wanted to make sure we all know. Anti can mean opposed to or against something. That's very obvious. And we know that the antichrist is going to be against Christ.
But look at this second definition. It says "of the same kind but situated opposite, exerting energy in the opposite direction or pursuing an opposite policy."
So that's very interesting. Of the same kind. It's going to look like a religious leader. It's going to look like a prophet. It's going to look like a teacher, a biblical teacher. But they're antichrist. They are against what Christ actually taught and spoke.
And so getting into God's Word and knowing His Word really can help you when all of a sudden you're in contact with this person who professes to be a prophet, professes to be apostle (which we know they aren't, there aren't any anymore), or professes to be a pastor. We can know whether or not they are of Christ or antichrist, a counterfeit of the like kind.
So best way to do that, get into God's Word.
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: Contrasting Paul's Ministry
Let's get into God's Word. And I want to compare and contrast Paul's ministry to the ministry that this guy is kind of professing he's a part of.
1 Thessalonians 2:9: We Worked to Not Be a Burden
When we turn to 1 Thessalonians 2:9: "For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil, we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God."
Did you catch it? "So I won't be a burden to any of you." Which means they didn't stand in front of the vehicles and not let them pass. They didn't throw rocks and firecrackers and bottles at them. They didn't inhibit the stuff that they had to do. They worked night and day. They worked so hard so as not to be a burden to any of you. Stark contrast, right?
Romans 15:20-21: Reaching Those Who Haven't Heard
All right, let's go on to Romans 15:20 and 21. "And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel." That's nice. I do too. I also make it my ambition. I like that. "Not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand."
There you go. And that doesn't mean that you can't go if you know to where the gospel has been preached. But the idea is to try to always keep sharing it with those who have never heard. That's the idea. Keep reaching more and more and more people, evangelizing the world. That's what it's all about.
And that quote where he says "as it is written," that's taken from Isaiah 52 verse 15 where they're going out to tell people who have never heard the gospel. And that again gets back to what I was saying earlier. This pastor doesn't know these people who are standing guard. He has no idea if they're Christians or if they're not or if they go to a church or if they don't. You are not there actually seeking to share the Word of God with people who have not heard.
Photo Ops Versus Ministry
Any pastor should never try to go to a photo op if it's to try to advance their ministry. There's nothing wrong with having photo ops, okay? When we are backstage with somebody or we've met, you know, it's cool. I'm not saying photo ops in general. I'm just saying if you go to try to have a photo op to put yourself in a position to elevate your own personal ministry platform in general terms, you're wrong. And when you're wrong over and over and over again, you have to be marked as a false teacher.
It gets back to what we were talking about earlier, just the self-serving mentality. And that's where the modern-day prophets and the new apostles and all this—that's all garbage. It's all garbage because they are inaccurate more than they are accurate. And the biblical standard to be a prophet of God is quite high. It's 100%. And so these people are not that. So they need to be marked and avoided.
And that doesn't mean we hate them. That doesn't mean that we want to pepper-spray them. Although a couple of them it wouldn't bother me if they got pepper-sprayed. But what we want is we want them to open their eyes. But when you're so focused on your own significance and your own photo ops and your own brand that you cannot serve Christ effectively as an agent of the gospel. Bada bing, bada boom.
Romans 13:1: Subject to Governing Authorities
Okay. So here's another really poignant Scripture verse. Romans chapter 13 verse 1 says, "Let every person be subject to governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."
I'm really curious to see where you're going with this one because this verse has a history over the last five years in America. Of course, any verse can be twisted, but what is it saying here?
It's just like, God has established the authority you're under and you're either under good authority or you're under curse authority. Either way, you have to deal with it because God has put it there for a reason.
So this flies in the face of them protesting and demonstrating and standing in front of the vehicles because what are these people doing? These people are just enforcing the laws. If you don't like the laws, then go stand and protest outside your legislators' office and tell them to change the law. That's what's going on. If you don't like the law, you're attacking the wrong people.
So when it says to be subject to the governing authorities and in other Scriptures it says as far as you are able, live at peace with one another. That is the polar opposite of what this pastor is trying to do. And so when law enforcement says, "I need you to move," you move. You get out of the way whether you like it or not. But yeah, they're barking up the wrong tree. And it's all a facade.
And the last thing, you know, remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when Peter pulls the sword out and he wants to fight them, right? And what does Jesus say? No, these things have to happen. The authority that was in place when Biden was in office was there for a purpose and I think it accomplished its purpose. A lot of people woke up and the same is with this administration and this law enforcement as well. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. No, not by a long way. But when someone tells something as simple as put your sword away or something as simple as move out of the way, you do those things.
Time for Weak-Wristed Christians to Sit Down
Well, one of the things that's been going on in our society since Charlie Kirk was murdered—murdered, you pick your adjective. There was an outcry from biblical Christians saying we've had enough. What can we do?
And I have always said that we have to start being more aggressive. The first thing we have to be aggressive with is our speech. We can no longer be these weak-kneed—we can't say anything. If we say something that's going to ruin our testimony, that is a lie from the pit of hell. We stand up. We tell people what's what. Look, Pastor Black, you're a fraud. You're a fake. Please step off. You repent. You repent of your photo op ways, trying to be something that you're not. Look at the Savior you profess and ask what He would have us do.
Say these things out loud and loud and proud, so to speak.
Well, since Charlie Kirk died, that was, you know, and now here we are, what, a month later? A little over a month later. And that's already starting to fade. I don't know if it's starting to fade. No, I'm telling you. And some of the stuff I see online, we are seeing people that are now going back to "you shouldn't say anything if you really love Jesus. You shouldn't call, you know, liberals lost satanic cult members." But they are. "Don't, you know, you shouldn't tell this pastor Black that what he did was wrong by trying to create a photo op and, you know, that you're happy he got pepper-sprayed because he had it coming. You shouldn't say those things and be a Christian."
That's what we're being taught. And so, yeah, there are some times that we need to have a little bit of restraint. I'm not saying, you know, again, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the phrase goes, but it's time for the weak-wristed Christians to sit down and get out of the way. And let the real men of God who've been called to be men—toxic masculinity, I'm sorry, is not toxic all the time. Is there some? Yes. Duh. But that whole argument has made real men sit down and take a backseat when they should be in the front, saying, "No, not on my watch. I'm a man of God who's been called to stand firm for the truth."
And that's what we need in our society more than anything today. I agree.
I mean, look, they killed Charlie because he spoke the truth. They're going to want—they want to keep killing everybody else. And so we're supposed to be reaching across the aisle. We're supposed to "Oh, don't say anything. Just pray for them." No. No. You want to kill me because I'm a Christian and then you want to pee on my grave. I'm sorry. I'm not going to just sit by and idly hand over everything to you in the name of soft Christianity.
And you know, we have a church where everybody's welcome. But for a while there, people started thinking it was this theological melting pot where everybody could come with their own theology. And it's like that is not the church. No, we won't. At the coffee shop downtown, we can agree to disagree, but inside this church, this is the church's stated position. You are now against the church.
And so, you know, it's those types of things where we have to stand firm on the truth. And how do you do that? And I'm sorry if this is sounding like a broken record, but this is what I feel like is the time to make this point. And that is that you have a narrow path and you have ditches on both sides. And on both sides of that narrow path, you can twist over here on the religiosity side and you can twist over here on the freedom in Christ side. And each time you can go into the ditch.
So if there's anything that's added on, anything that you have to make a leap in the Scriptures, anytime you have to take Scriptures out of context to try to justify your little pet theology of the day, reject it and walk the narrow path.
Well, what are the tenets of the narrow path? There are four of them. Would you like me to tell you them? I would love that. Are you sure? Yes. Because your show prep sheet is over, by the way. She show prepped. No, I know. But I'm making a whole bunch of notes now. Stuff that you're saying. It's very good.
Final Thoughts: The Four Pillars of the Narrow Path
There are four things. There are four things that keep you on the narrow path.
Number one is that man is fallen. Adam sinned and man fell and creation fell at the same time. That means we're all in the flesh. We're all fallen. So as we are trying to be saints, those of us who've been redeemed and walking out our sanctification, we still fall. We're still sinful people that need grace. And so it's a constant—today, Lord, let me be better in You. Today, let me be better in You. And what happens is you decrease and He increases and you realize you're still in a fallen state.
Number two, you realize that the Christ was born of a virgin. You accept the fact that Mary was chosen by God to carry the Son of God into the world and that Jesus then lived a perfect life.
Number three is the cross. Jesus did not have to go to the cross. Jesus could have rejected the cross, but this was God and Jesus's plan from the foundations of the world that He would come and do this because you had to be a spotless lamb. I just finished Revelation 4 and Revelation 5 and it's just exciting to see the spotless Lamb of God.
And then the big one where everything rises and falls is that I want to be resurrected from the dead when I die. Hey, whether it's five minutes from now or 50 years from now, I want that resurrection of the dead. And Jesus has it and He gives it freely because He rose again from the dead on the third day.
So fall of man, virgin birth, cross with the atonement for sin (He becomes our substitute, He took our punishment on Himself), and then victory at the resurrection over death, hell, and the grave. That's what authentic Christianity narrow road is.
And then how do you walk that out? Well, you walk it out with joy. You walk it out with trusting God's promises, reading the Psalms, reading the Proverbs, and you see that the very best you can do is filthy rags in front of a holy God, like Isaiah says, right?
I'm sorry. I probably have said too much. No, you haven't. This is good. This is very good. All right. I don't know. Are you done? Are those your final thoughts? I don't have anything else after that other than—
Are you empty? No. This is like the first time you've been empty. No, I could keep going. Someone just looked at the clock and it's like, "Okay, I better—" Okay. Well, so those are your final thoughts. Is that what you're saying? Because that was really good.
Repent. Did you repent, you sinners? Go wash your hands. Did you do all four of them? Yeah. The four are the fall of man, the virgin birth, the cross, the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross in our place, and then the resurrection. Resurrection. Yep. All right. Very good. I love that. Can I force it? What does that mean? That's all I have to say about that. Perfect. I love that.
Now I know it's my turn. You know, it's very interesting as we see now these social justice warriors getting into the fray. It's important to be able to just kind of pick up on little cues that maybe something's not right there because we know that we're all going to stand before God and some are going to say, "Lord, Lord, didn't we do works in Your name? Didn't we prophesy in Your name? Didn't we perform miracles in Your name?"
Again, antichrist. It's a pseudo-Christ. It's of the same kind, but it's opposed to what He's really doing. Jesus is going to say, "I don't know you."
And if Jesus doesn't know them, it would behoove you to know whether you should have something to do with them or not. As you said, mark and avoid.
So it's our job to walk humbly, keeping in repentance, staying in God's Word so that those little cues will stand out to us. We'll see it. We'll know something's not right right off the bat. And we will know to mark and avoid those false teachers, false Christs, false prophets that are going to rise up in these last days. You're false in your falsy falseness.